Raccoon Facts (Procyon lotor)

Raccoon Facts (Procyon lotor) The raccoon (Procyon lotor) is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. It is easily recognized by its pointed masked face and banded furry tail. The species name lotor is neo-Latin for washer, referring to the animals habit of foraging for underwater food and sometimes washing it before eating. Fast Facts: Raccoon Scientific Name: Procyon lotorCommon Names: Raccoon, coonBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 23 to 37 inchesWeight: 4 to 23 poundsLifespan: 2 to 3 yearsDiet: OmnivoreHabitat: North AmericaPopulation: MillionsConservation Status: Least Concern Description A raccoon is characterized by the black mask of fur around its eyes, alternating light and dark rings on its bushy tail, and pointed face. Except for the mask and tail, its fur is grayish in color. Raccoons are able to stand on their hind legs and manipulate objects with their dexterous fore paws. Males tend to be 15 to 20% heavier than females, but size and weight varies dramatically depending on habitat and time of year. An average raccoon is between 23 to 37 inches in length and weighs between 4 and 23 pounds. Raccoons weigh roughly twice as much in autumn compared to early spring because they store fat and conserve energy when temperatures are low and food is scarce. Habitat and Distribution Raccoons are native to North and Central America. They prefer wooded habitats near water, but have expanded to live in marshes, mountains, prairies, and urban areas. In the mid-20th century, raccoons were introduced into Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan. Raccoon natural range (red) and introduced range (blue). Roke, Creative Commons License Diet Raccoons are omnivores that feed on small invertebrates, nuts, fruit, fish, bird eggs, frogs, and snakes. They tend to avoid larger prey as long as their usual food source is available. Many raccoons are nocturnal, but it is not unusual for a healthy raccoon to seek food during the day, particularly near human habitation. Behavior While captive raccoons often douse their food in water before eating it, the behavior is less common in wild animals. Scientists hypothesize the dousing behavior stems from the species foraging pattern, which typically involves an aquatic habitat. Once thought to be solitary creatures, scientists now know raccoons engage in social behavior. While each raccoon lives within its home range, related females and unrelated males form social groups that often feed or rest together. Raccoons are highly intelligent. They can open complex locks, remember symbols and problem solutions for years, distinguish between different quantities, and understand abstract principles. Neuroscientists find neuron density in raccoon brains comparable to that in primate brains. Reproduction and Offspring Raccoon females are fertile for three or four days between late January and mid-March, depending on the duration of daylight and other factors. Females often mate with multiple males. If the female loses her kits, she may become fertile in another 80 to 140 days, but most females only have one litter each year. Females seek a protected area to serve as a den for raising young. Males separate from females after mating and are not involved in raising young. Gestation lasts from 54 to 70 days (usually 63 to 65 days), resulting in a litter of two to five kits or pups. Kits weigh between 2.1 and 2.6 ounces at birth. They have masked faces, but are born blind and deaf. Kits are weaned by 16 weeks of age and disperse to find new territories in autumn. Females are sexually mature in time for the next mating season, while males mature somewhat later and typically start breeding when they are two years old. In the wild, raccoons typically only live between 1.8 and 3.1 years. Only about half of a litter survive the first year. In captivity, raccoons may live 20 years. Baby raccoons resemble their parents. Janette Asche / Getty Images Conservation Status The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categorizes the raccoons conservation status as least concern. The population is stable and increasing in some areas. The raccoon occurs in some protected areas, plus it has adapted to live in close proximity to humans. While raccoons have natural predators, most deaths are from hunting and traffic accidents. Raccoons and Humans Raccoons have a long history of interaction with humans. They are hunted for their fur and killed as pests. Raccoons may be tamed and kept as pets, although keeping them is prohibited in some locations. Pet raccoons are best kept in pens to minimize property destruction and are usually neutered to reduce aggressive behavior. Orphaned unweaned kits may be fed cows milk. However, becoming accustomed to humans may make it difficult for them to adjust if the raccoons are later released into the wild. Sources Goldman, Edward A.; Jackson, Hartley H.T. Raccoons of North and Middle America. North American Fauna 60 Washington: U.S. Deptartment of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1950.MacClintock, Dorcas. A Natural History of Raccoons. Caldwell, New Jersey: Blackburn Press, 1981. ISBN 978-1-930665-67-5.Reid, F. A. A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico. Oxford University Press. p. 263, 2009. ISBN 0-19-534322-0Timm, R.; Cuarà ³n, A.D.; Reid, F.; Helgen, K.; Gonzlez-Maya, J.F. Procyon lotor. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T41686A45216638. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T41686A45216638.enZeveloff, Samuel I. Raccoons: A Natural History Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2002. ISBN 978-1-58834-033-7

5 Problems with Parallelism

5 Problems with Parallelism 5 Problems with Parallelism 5 Problems with Parallelism By Mark Nichol 1. â€Å"It was a serious distraction and threat to more meaningful reform efforts.† Something is wrong with this sentence. To diagnose the problem, remove one of the noun phrases from the beginning of the sentence and determine whether the remaining statement is still correct, then replace it and remove the other one. â€Å"It was a serious threat to more meaningful reform efforts† is correct, but â€Å"It was a serious distraction to more meaningful reform efforts† is jarring because the preposition is not idiomatically appropriate. The noun phrases are supported by different prepositions, so they cannot share the word to; assign the correct preposition to each one: â€Å"It was a serious distraction from and threat to more meaningful reform efforts.† Should the word threat be preceded by the article a to make it parallel with distraction? No, because serious applies to both nouns, and an additional article would isolate threat from the shared adjective. Also, the phrase â€Å"and threat to† appears to be parenthetical, but it’s not necessarily necessary to set it off by commas, parentheses, or em dashes. However, enclosing it in parentheses suggests a whispering insinuation, and using em dashes would signal a provocative interjection, so the context might merit either parenthetical strategy. In either case, though, threat should be assigned a repetition of serious â€Å"It was a serious distraction from (and a serious threat to) more meaningful reform efforts† or a distinct adjective (â€Å"It was a serious distraction from and a grave threat to more meaningful reform efforts.†) 2. â€Å"Elected officials and activists representing forty-five environmental groups attended the event.† When two or more nouns or noun phrases follow one or more adjectives (as in the previous example), the assumption is that the modifying word or words applies to each noun. In this case, however, the subject consists of the elements â€Å"elected officials† and â€Å"activists representing forty-five environmental groups† linked by a conjunction, not â€Å"elected officials (representing forty-five environmental groups)† and â€Å"(elected) activists representing forty-five environmental groups† joined by and. To clarify this distinction, recast the sentence: â€Å"Activists representing forty-five environmental groups, as well as elected officials, attended the event.† 3. â€Å"He has to be, if not the, one of the stupidest people in TV news.† The basic statement here is â€Å"He has to be one of the stupidest people in TV news,† but the writer has failed in an attempt to suggest the superlative as well, awkwardly implying also that â€Å"he has to be the stupidest person in TV news.† (The superlative is the ultimate form of an adjective, more extreme than the basic form stupid, in this case – and the comparative, stupider.) But â€Å"if not the† collides with â€Å"one of the†; the unstated and incorrect complete thought is, â€Å"He has to be the stupidest people in TV news.† To smooth out this disjointed sentence, introduce the superlative first in a complete thought, and then retreat to the milder criticism in a following modifying phrase: â€Å"He has to be if not the stupidest person in TV news, then one of the stupidest.† Note that a comma does not follow be, because doing so would imply that two commas are necessary to set â€Å"if not the stupidest person in TV news† off from the basic sentence â€Å"He has to be then one of the stupidest,† and that’s a faulty grammatical analysis. This sentence is constructed from a simple â€Å"if, then† foundation, so use a single comma to separate the two propositions. 4. â€Å"He kept a house there as well as homes in rural Oxfordshire, England, and Miami.† This sentence implies that the subject kept three additional homes: one in Oxfordshire, one in England, and one in Miami. (It also incorrectly suggests that, as in the second example above, a single adjective applies to all nouns that follow.) What the writer meant, as we determine momentarily which is one moment too late is that one additional residence is located in Oxfordshire, England, and another is in Miami. When one or more â€Å"city, state† or â€Å"city, nation† constructions are associated with a â€Å"city† reference, the sentence must be revised to clarify the hierarchy of referents. One solution is to distance the two objects with proprietary prepositions: â€Å"He kept a house there as well as homes in rural Oxfordshire, England, and in Miami.† Another, clearer choice is to do so but also place the simpler referent first: â€Å"He kept a house there as well as homes in Miami and in rural Oxfordshire, England.† 5. â€Å"The company was to be paid between $300 and $400 million.† This â€Å"you know what I meant† bungle is inoffensive but incorrect, and should be corrected on principle because a similar but more egregiously ambiguous construction would definitely merit revision, so why be inconsistent and excuse one but not the other? The two figures in question are $300 million and $400 million, and for the sake of clarity, the first instance of million should not be elided: â€Å"The company was to be paid between $300 million and $400 million.† The same principle applies if the range is separated by the word to: â€Å"The company was to be paid $300 million to $400 million.† However, when the sentence does not apply to orders of magnitude â€Å"Compliance ranged from 50 to 75 percent† the operative word need not be repeated, because no ambiguity about the relation of the first number to the second one exists. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the Future75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†When to use "an"